Has Albert Pujols hit rock bottom?

By now, everyone knows Albert Pujols is struggling. It’s not news. On the heels of a $240 million contract, he’s having the worst start to a season in his career.

But he may be sitting at rock bottom right now. For the first time this season, Pujols was not in the Angels' starting lineup on Saturday. And it was due to a managerial decision, not an injury.

Pujols was hitting .296 (16-for-54) with four RBIs, seven doubles, a .333 OBP and a .426 slugging percentage through April 19. Considering he also had no homers, those numbers weren’t very good, but they weren’t awful.

Worst BA in MLB Since April 20

But since April 20, Pujols has really gone downhill. During that span, he’s hitting .093 (5-for-54) with one RBI, one extra-base hit, a .140 OBP and a .111 slugging percentage.

Since April 20, Pujols has the worst batting average, OBP and slugging percentage in baseball.

Pujols has gone 37 regular-season games (27 this year, final 10 last year) without a multi-RBI game, the longest streak of his career. His previous longest streak was 27 games in 2002.

And we all know about how Pujols has no homers in 108 at bats this season, the longest single-season streak of his career. Mike Trout hit his first homer of the season for the Angels on Saturday. He now has one more homer than Pujols in more than 100 fewer at-bats this year.

Worst Slug Pct in MLB
Since April 20

Much of Pujols’ struggles this season can be attributed to his inability to hit offspeed pitches. He’s hitting .114 this season (5-for-44) against changeups, curveballs and sliders with zero extra-base hits and two RBIs.

Pujols is chasing 46 percent of offspeed pitches thrown to him outside of the strike zone this season.

OTHER MLB NOTES FROM SATURDAY

Troy Tulowitzki committed his seventh error of the season in the Rockies' 26th game. He committed six errors all of last season in 140 games.

Adam Dunn's home run had a true distance of 438 feet, the longest home run given up by Jose Valverde since the start of the 2006 season. Valverde blew his second save of the season after not blowing any last season.

The Red Sox have lost nine of their past 10 games at Fenway Park. It’s the first time they’ve lost nine of 10 games at Fenway Park since 1994, when they lost 12 straight home games in June that year.